6-Hero Elves 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

This is a 6-hero deck I designed (mostly to face off solo against the Core Set campaign, continuing through to the 2-quest Mirkwood campaign).

Goal: I wanted to play 2-handed, but without the complications of having 2 entire player spaces at the table.

The rules I modified:

1. My threat is handled by one threat dial
   • Starting threat is calculated by adding the total threat of all my heroes and dividing by 2 (rounded up)
   • All threat increases and decreases would be treated as if I was one player (to simplify the math)
2. For each additional hero above 3, I had to add 5 more cards to the deck. This made the deck a bit more varied, and I felt it a fair number to account for the additional spheres in the deck. This was part of my balance against having to have 2 full 50-card decks... I'd still see more cards.
3. All other decisions in the game would treat my deck as 2 players. This included quest cards, staging, X values on encounter cards, etc.

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There are 2 cards in this decklist that I use community-modified versions of:

1. Glorfindel: I printed a proxy that has 12 threat, but says "Each hero you control with threat cost 9 or lower gets -3 threat cost." and "Response: After Glorfindel commits to the quest, discard a card from your hand to ready him." (which I never use)
   • My reasoning: Glorfindel would draw more attention than 5 threat when adventuring out, and that might cause anyone else he's travelling with to reduce in relative threat. For example, if Glorfindel went with the Fellowship, that would draw more attention to the group, but then if Glorfindel went off on his own, he would be the one the enemy would send the largest army against.
   • This resulted in a starting threat of 25 (with my modified rules above, 27 with Beregond), but that matched up with my desired level of difficulty, playing by Normal rules (no extra resource, full encounter deck card pool).
2. A Burning Brand: My versions say "Attach to a hero. Restricted." ("hero" instead of "character", and no longer needing to be ) because I wanted to use this card with Beregond
   • My reasoning: Why can only some heroes hold a torch?

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Background: When I bought the Revised Core Set (in 2023), I was a little disappointed in the design of the decks vs the encounters. I only played 2-player with my wife, and knew I'd never play with 3 or 4 players. I did some research and found the a lot of agreement online regarding the Escape from Dol Guldur quest, and I decided I'd rather make the game fit me than give up the game, so I've decided to make the game my own and enjoy it. We have bought some more cards (hero and encounters), and we've moulded the game into one we enjoy quite a lot!

(I proxied a few cards. I also don't feel like spending $50 to get 3x of one card. Sorry FFG!)

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Notes:

1. As mentioned above, sometimes I switch out Legolas for Beregond. When I do, I usually remove 2xStone of Elostirion), 1xGuardian of Rivendell, and 2x Henamarth Riversong. I replace them with 3xGondorian Shield and my modified 2xA Burning Brand.
2. If you only want to use officially released cards, get rid of A Burning Brand and add Wingfoot (for Haldir of Lórien, almost always naming "enemy")
   • I may even consider replacing Glorfindel with Beregond full-time in this case, and replace some cards with some more cards.
3. I've never found a need for Protector of Lórien, but I'd be more willing to discard cards to it with the Will of the West in there
4. Don't forget you can put Cloak of Lórien on Elrohir and Guardian of Rivendell!
5. Thematic issues:
   • Power of Orthanc: sometimes you just need condition removal
   • Northern Tracker: I consider the Dúnedain to be closely related to the elves of Rivendell due to the bloodline connection between Aragorn and Elrond
   • Beregond and Gondorian Shield: I know it was thousands of years ago, but the ancestors of Gondor allied with the elves against Sauron at the end of the 2nd age. In my head-canon, them working together isn't out of the question, if the stakes are high enough.

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Fellowship: My wife and I bought the Angmar Awakened repackaged hero card pack as well as the 4 starter decks (Elves, Dwarves, Rohan, Gondor), and I designed this deck to be played either solo (by me, I love it) or together with my wife's 6-hero Dunedain and Gondor deck. You can find the paired deck by following the Fellowship links.